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Agents of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested this week Pedro Fernández, an undocumented Cuban citizen convicted of cocaine trafficking in Hialeah, Florida.
The arrest of Fernández occurred as part of a broader operation in which ICE apprehended undocumented immigrants with felony convictions on May 7, including charges of child sexual abuse, assaulting a pregnant woman, and conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in a press release issued on Friday.
The acting Deputy Secretary of DHS, Lauren Bis, warned that ICE will not stop its operations. "Under President [Donald] Trump and Secretary [Markwayne] Mullin, ICE will continue to arrest and deport undocumented criminal immigrants who never should have been in our country. If you enter our country illegally and break our laws, we will find you, we will arrest you, and you will never return," she stated emphatically.
Authorities did not provide details regarding the circumstances of Pedro Fernández's arrest, a case that adds to the increasing number of detentions of island citizens with criminal records in the U.S., which have intensified in 2026.
The arrests of Cubans by ICE increased by 463% between October 2024 and January 2026, according to a report by the Cato Institute based on official data from that federal agency and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
In recent months, ICE agents arrested a Cuban national with a final deportation order and convictions for multiple thefts and drug-related offenses, as well as another individual forsexual abuse against minors, both in New Jersey; while another Cuban citizen was arrested in Pennsylvania for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
DHS classifies these arrests under the category "the worst of the worst," a label that the Trump administration uses to refer to undocumented immigrants with felony convictions, whom they consider a threat to public safety.
Between January 21, 2025, and January 31, 2026, ICE made approximately 392,619 arrests of undocumented immigrants nationwide, of which less than 14% had convictions or charges for violent crimes, according to an internal DHS document obtained by the network CBS News.
Florida is one of the states with the highest number of detainees, with 5,281 individuals in custody, according to data from April 2026, in a context where operations have resulted in the arrest of dozens of undocumented immigrants in various localities across the state.
On the other hand, Hialeah, where the Cuban Pedro Fernández was convicted, is the city with the highest concentration of Cubans and Cuban Americans in the entire U.S., with 84.1% of its 223,109 residents being of Cuban origin, according to the 2020 Census.
The history of Hialeah regarding drug trafficking is extensive. Recently, a Cuban resident of that city pleaded guilty in a federal court to possessing over 100 kilograms of marijuana and possessing five firearms to facilitate drug trafficking.
Meanwhile, in February, a multi-agency operation culminated with 14 arrests at a popular bar-café located in the west of Hialeah which, according to the authorities, was operating as a front for a large criminal network involved in the illegal sale of alcohol, drugs, and illegal gambling. In previous years, the authorities dismantled a gang dedicated to cocaine trafficking and money laundering in that city.
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